Saturday Night Live: Ariana DeBose to host January 15 show

Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live is currently set to return on January 15 and today, we learned that a West Side Story star will be taking the reins as host.

Ariana DeBose has been tapped to be front and center for the first new show of 2022, and she will be joined by musical guest Roddy Ricch. This marks Ariana’s hosting debut, but she does have a history with at least one member of the cast in Cecily Strong — the two worked together for the Apple TV+ series Schmigadoon!.

To us, the big question mark surrounding the January 15 show is whether or not it ends up happening. Remember that the virus caused the Paul Rudd – Christmas episode to be largely scrapped, save for some pre-taped sketches and a patchwork Weekend Update and opening with Tom Hanks and Tina Fey. Given the number of shows that are shutting down right now due to the variant, we’re personally going to take a wait-and-see approach with this one. We know that the hope is for there to be multiple episodes the rest of the month, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens. (There’s a chance it could be off the air in February due to the Olympics.)

Above all else, we have to hope that there’s going to be some sort of performance from DeBose in musical form in the episode — how could you cast her and not do that? Her appearance does continue a trend of awards-show contenders getting hosting gigs early on in the calendar year for the show. She may not be a household name to everyone out there, but doing SNL is certainly another way to get you an elevated platform.

Related Be sure to get some more news when it comes to Saturday Night Live right now

What do you want to see on the January 15 episode of Saturday Night Live?

Do you think that the producers are going to find a way to make it happen? Be sure to share right now in the attached comments! Once you do just that, stick around — there are more updates ahead that we don’t want you to miss. (Photo: NBC.)

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